David and Denise Brine – Guests of Ralph Munro (and the speaker’s parents)

Gary Valiens – Guest of Tore Nielsen

Ann Wilson – Guest of Cheryl Duryea

Gaius Horton – Guest of Judge Mary Sue Wilson (her son)

Happy Bucks – hosted by Justice Debra Stephens

Judge Mary Sue Wilson – attended Spokane’s Hoopfest over the weekend. Her daughter won and their team was planning on the Spokane Rotary Club Court.

Oscar Soule – August 28 is the Olympia Rotary Club outing to the Tacoma Rainiers game – please RSVP directly to Oscar via email.

Dirk Farrar - Crossed off going to the CA Redwoods from his “bucket list”, brought back a Paul Bunyan book for the Club.

Fred Adair – Found Lacey Rotary Duck (from Duck Dash) on the beach of Puget Sound. He and Mary Jane are also celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary.

Rosemary Barnhart – Reported that her daughter has transitioned from being an architect to being a nurse and she has accepted a Nurse Internship at St. Peter’s Hospital in Olympia.

Victoria (exchange student from Denmark) – Reported that this is her last week in Olympia. She thanked the entire club for their support and hopes to return to our area next summer.

Don Chalmers - Reported that he visited Chicago this last week and it was a cool 75. He was pleased to be able to avoid the heat-wave at home in Olympia.

Announcements:

President Wendy Holden: Gave red carnations to those members in the club associated with the behind-the-scenes work that ensures we have successful meetings (greeters, cashiers, Wheel reporters, invocation/Four Way Test/songs, etc.). She thanked these individuals for their good work over the last year.

Mark Elliot: On behalf of the Fred Balz Community Grants Committee, announced two awards to the club. Out of the 14 requests received this Spring, 7 organizations received $1,000. Representing Senior Services for South Sound, Paul Taylor (Director of the STARS program) accepted the grant check. Paul said the contribution would support the STARS Adult Day Program. Representing Homes First was Marge Price (Development Director). Marge said the contributions would support expanding the number of housing options in our community, especially shared housing options.

Jack Belmont: Reminded the club about how engaging and fun Dine Around was – encouraged club members to get involved by signing up to participate.

Bill Lahmann: Asked the club to sign up for volunteer slots during the Legacy Trials Marathon. Volunteers are an essential part of keeping both the runners, and motorists safe during the race. The club has committee to have 100% member participant. To sign-up, please contact either Bill or Martin Meyer.

Auction: Steve Bean auctioned two tickets to Harlequin’s “First Date”. The tickets were donated by Gloria Strait. Jack Belmont won the tickets.

Program:Emily Brine: Hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail

Ralph Munro introduced our speaker. Emily went to McLane Elementary, Marshall Middle School and Capitol High School. She graduated from the University of Montana and immediately started to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail. She is now a National Park Ranger intern and hopes to become a Ranger. Her hike took place in the Summer/Fall of 2015.

Emily shared a portfolio of pictures and explained the different parts of the hike, and her experiences. The trail is known as a “Border to Border Trail”. It spans from Mexico to Canada. The PCT is 2,650 miles long. It is the Nation’s largest footpath. The trail goes through 7 National Parks ad 25 National Forests.

Emily started her journey from the southern terminus on May 19, 2015. During phase one it was very hard and water was limited. She experienced the phenomenon of “hiker hunger” as she traversed the desert, she would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night extremely hungry. Her normal day was to rise at 5am (or whenever the sun came up) and then begin walking until about 6pm. She would constantly be eating and drinking, too.

Moving into phase two she made it across the High Sierra Desert and successfully summited Mount Whitney (which isn’t technically on the PCT, but is a common detour). The ½ way point on the PCT is in California. It was then on to Crater Lake and the Three Sisters Wilderness in Oregon and Mount Rainier and the North Cascades in Washington. By the time Emily was in WA it was early Fall and the North Cascades were COLD.

October, 14, 2015 was the date Emily reached the end of the PCT in Canada. It was very bitter sweet, but she had several takeaways. Her lessons:

Hike Your Hike: practice your own self-care, and support this in others.